Artistic Director's Blog - Artists Diary
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Hello theatre aficionados, This is the beginning of a brand new blog called The Artist’s Diary. I will be asking various artists who work at San Jose Rep to jot their thoughts down as they are here rehearsing for our next show so that we can share them with you. I will ask them to write what they experienced during their creative process here in the big blue “magic box” that is SJ Rep. Sometimes you will hear from a director, sometimes an actor or a designer, or perhaps a dialect coach or a fight director. Sometimes you will hear from me or another member of our artistic staff. |
Kirsten Brandt, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde 6.3.08
The world premiere adaptation of DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE is underway at the REP. We are thrilled with this production and are delighted to be partnering once again with Arizona Theatre Company on this co-production.
We get a lot of questions about co-productions from our audience. The main question is: What exactly is a co-production? So, here is a little information that might dispel some myths.
Co-productions are when two (or more) organizations come together to combine resources to deliver fabulous art. The companies’ artistic leaders collaborate to ensure the artistic quality of the production is top notch. They do this by choosing the best director and design team for the show. The organizations share costs such as building of the sets, costumes, and props.
We began our 06-07 Season by teaming with The Intiman in Seattle to bring you the hilarious MOONLIGHT AND MAGNOLIAS and then ended the season with a four-theatre co-production with Arizona Theatre Company, The Cleveland Play House & Asolo Theatre Company to bring ELLA to our stage. This season, we teamed with California Shakespeare theatre on Marivaux’s classic comedy, TRIUMPH OF LOVE, and now again with Arizona Theatre Company with the world premiere adaptation of DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE.
Last October, San Jose Rep hosted a workshop of the first draft of DR. JEKYLL & MR. HYDE. Since we knew the production was to be rehearsed in Arizona, this afforded us the opportunity to contribute artistically at the early stages of the process. The playwright, Jeffrey Hatcher, and director, David Ira Goldstein, work through concepts and ideas in the text with most of the original cast. The play, already brilliantly drafted by Jeffrey Hatcher, became more detailed enabling the cast to launch into rehearsals a few weeks later.
Casting is one of the most intricate and delicate aspects of a co-production. Housing costs are a huge factor. Local actors to us are not local actors to other theatres. Finding a balance that works for both theatres is important. The Rep’s Casting Director Bruce Elsperger collaborated with David Goldstein and staff at Arizona Theatre in casting the show. Auditions were held in San Jose. Four of the six ensemble actors were cast from the Bay Area. The remaining two ensemble members had worked with Mr. Goldstein in previous productions in Arizona. There are also two orderlies (acting interns) in the show. Two actors from Tucson were in the production in Arizona and two Bay Area actors were cast in San Jose.
Organizations participating in a co-production have a unique opportunity to take advantage of each other’s expertise and resources. It is a cost effect way of maintaining a high caliber of art without compromising aesthetic due to finance.
Timothy Near, My Gradual Transition
Dear Patrons,
This letter is to let you, the dear friends of San Jose Rep, know that I am beginning a gradual separation from the Rep over the next two seasons. I recently presented a proposal to the Rep’s Board of Trustees that laid out a plan allowing sufficient time to prepare for the transition of artistic leadership. It is rare that a theatre is given the gift of time for such a change and I wanted to make that gift. As you know, I care a great deal about San Jose Rep but I have a longing to spend more time as an artist and less time running an arts organization.
I have just completed 20 seasons at the Rep. It is a marvelous feeling to look back at the exciting journey we have taken together. Some of you were here before me and some of you have come on board along the way. Every step has been interesting and fulfilling for me, from building the new theater, to filling it with enormous talent over these past 10 years.
I believe that theatre art has the power to celebrate what is best in human nature, while it provokes us to think, examine, improve, transform and transcend. When you think of the Rep, I hope you think of our work as human, warm, funny and as inventive theatre that subtly gives you something to think about —always offering a friendly welcome to all who attend. I hope you will be reminded of times that you’ve been moved by a love story, intrigued by a political social message, stimulated by the text, music and visual story telling, honored by the relating of local lore or, validated by a play that seemed written just for you.
I want you to know that one of my most favorite, favorite parts of being an Artistic Director is my interaction with you, our audience. In my conversations with you, I have learned so much and received such a tremendous amount of warm appreciation and shared love for the art of theatre.
How will you notice this gradual transition? I will be delegating many of my administrative responsibilities to our wonderful Managing Director Nick Nichols, and other members of our staff, including my newly appointed Associate Artistic Director, Kirsten Brandt. Over time, you will see less of me and hear less from me. However, I will still be very involved in the programming and selecting of creative teams for the 08-09 season and, I will advise on the 09-10 season. You can be assured that the superb talent, craft and creativity that are the hallmarks of the Rep will continue as the company looks forward to another 20 years of exciting and stimulating theatre.
Thank you, again, for the marvelous years of support. Your appreciation of theatre and your belief in the work we do continues to propel the Rep forward in playing a vital and creative role in our community and the national body of theatre.
As always, with sincere appreciation,
Timothy Near
Timothy Near, Rabbit Hole
Hello there. Sorry there has been no entry for awhile. Let me first tell you generally what is going on in the artistic dept right now. We are in previews for Rabbit Hole. We are all excited because we think it’s really good and the feed back we have had from preview audiences has been delightfully positive. The director, Kirsten Brandt will be writing an entry below.
Last week we held the subscriber event which was attended by over 400 of our subscriber family. More on this below.
This week I am trying to complete the creation of artistic teams for next years season. It is critical that I pick the right director and that the director and I pick the design team (costumes, set, lights, sound) that will bring great inventiveness to the creation and also support the directors vision in a multitude of creative ways.
Next week I am off to NYC to see a lot of plays that might be of interest for the 2008-2009 season. I have found some of our most popular shows by actually going to see Off Broadway plays and also attending play festivals. For example I found Rabbit Hole at South Coast Rep’s playwright festival in Costa Mesa. I also read hundreds of plays, but it is helpful to see them since plays are meant to be heard and seen. They are actually very hard to read because you have to really sense how they might play on the stage.
Re: our Subscriber Thank You event. Everyone I talked to had a great time. People loved taking the tour of the building, they loved the breakout session with our casting director to hear about casting, they loved meeting and hearing from our senior staff about everything including costumes, sets, backstage magic, outreach and our Red Ladder Theatre Co. They even got to go to the basement and see the dressing rooms. Towards the end of the event, I talked about next season and the actors did readings from some of the plays. Some of you filled out question cards to me and here are the questions and my answers:
Q. Can your costume dept use a small size mink coat?
A. Yes. Thank you. Just call Christopher Morris 367 7265 and he will arrange to receive it from you.
Q. How can a person get involved as a volunteer?
A. Call our Director of Volunteers, Michael Mulhern, at.367 7275
Q. How can I get a CD from the music of Haunting of Winchester musical?
A. Sadly, it cost a lot to make the CD because we have to pay union musicians and union performers. I wish we could find a $60,000 sponsor to pay for the CD because so many people ask for it.
Q. Any more antique Greek plays? We enjoyed the last staging.
A. You are referring to Iphigenia at Aulis. Thank you for your appreciation. I only do a Greek drama about once every 10 years. They should be done. I LOVE directing them because they hold so much meaning for us even though they are ancient. And they provide me an opportunity to work with groups like SJ Taiko and The Dance Brigade from San Francisco. But they aren’t everyone cup of tea. I try to provide a balance and variety of classic and contemporary plays.
Q. Do you plan on acting on the stage soon? What role are you considering?
A. I would love to act in something. But it is hard to find roles for women of a certain age. If you have any ideas, let me know.
We also received comments:
Comment: Please consider Kiss Me Kate and Much Ado about Nothing.
My Reply: I would love to. I love musicals and classics. They are very expensive. The cost lies in the size of the cast, in the additional expense of musicians and a musical director and in costumes and wigs. SJ Rep has had an ongoing struggle to find the financial support to do the bigger cast plays and musicals. As Silicon Valley begins to value its performing arts groups more, we will be able to do more of this exciting and entertaining work. In the last few years we have managed to bring you Two Gentlemen of Verona, Midsummer, 12th Night, and a few smaller musicals: Haunting of Winchester, 1940’s Radio Hour, Making Tracks, Enter The Guardsman.
Next season we will bring you the wonderful French classic romance: Triumph of Love.
Comment: Timothy, you are doing a great job. And of course we liked the drama Long Days Journey Into Night, but actually all of what is presented is exceptional.
My Reply: Thanks Gloria and Rich. I so appreciate you being subscribers for 25 years!!!
And now our next artists diary entry by Kirsten Brandt. Ms. Brandt has been on staff at SJ Rep all this season. You may have seen her on our stage leading post show discussions. She works with me in our Literary Department as we choose the plays for the next season. She also writes note in our program for some of the plays. She has been an Artistic Director of the Sledgehammer Theatre in San Diego. She has directed at all the major professional theatres in San Diego. You will see her work at Shakespeare Santa Cruz this summer. She is a skilled director and has done a beautiful job directing Rabbit Hole.
Kirsten Brandt, Director, Rabbit Hole 5.22.07
Kirsten Brandt here. We’re just about to embark on our last preview of RABBIT HOLE. The feedback from the audience has been amazing. They are laughing exactly where we thought they would – and in many places we had no idea they would. We’re learning a lot by finding the right balance between laughter and tears.
Every run through and performance I realize how much this play is like music (as Stacy Ross put it so eloquently in rehearsal one day). The chords of each character shift and blend into the others and then break out for beautiful solos. If we pitch a scene to hot, we have no place to go and it is exhausting for the audience and actor. Thus, orchestrating has been our main push this last week. These phenomenal actors are so in tuned to each other that they riff beautifully off of ever subtle change, creating a vibrant “live” performance.
This is the first time I have directed something so realistic. The other “realistic” pieces I have done have been in the round – so you never get the full impact of a “box set.” Suffice it to say, this project has been exciting for me. The scenic and prop shops here at the Rep have been stellar – giving us a working kitchen, fabulous furniture all the while paying absolute attention to the details. And the CAKE – yep, there is cake in the show – and let me just say, it’s yummy. I know what you’re thinking; we’re not supposed to eat the props. But my rule of thumb is that I never ask an actor to do something I wouldn’t do – and I would never ask an actor to eat something I didn’t sample.
I couldn’t be more pleased with how it is all turning out.
Timothy Near, Nixon's Nixon 3.22.07
Last month you heard from Long Days Journey director, Jon Moscone, and I am going to leave Jon’s entry on this blog so at the end of the season you can go back and read all the interesting things artists had to say about their work at the Rep during this season.
Now Michael Butler is in rehearsal for Nixon’s Nixon. This is a play Michael directed for The Rep in 1997 just as we were opening our new theatre. Nixon’s Nixon was the Rep’s final show at the Montgomery Theatre where the Rep produced plays from 1980 to 1997. Our audiences felt that something special was happening in Michael Butler’s unusual production. Many still say it was one of their favorite Rep shows. Michael really introduced a new style of work to our stage that was influenced by contemporary visual arts. Michael has a great eye and instinct for a modernist approach to designing his shows. If you are a Rep regular, you will remember his exquisite Mary’s Wedding (remember the wooden horse?), the striking and unique Side Man with its nod to the colorful record albums of 50’s- 60’s jazz, and the graceful set for Desire Under the Elms that played on a field of black dirt with a floating translucent wall of the house that hovered over the stage. Michael has such a clear and imaginative vision of what a play should look like that he is a treat for designers to work with. Most recently we enjoyed the flying ghost girl in his Haunting of Winchester and the very effective 1906 earthquake created with a series of rolling door frames held by actors. Michael also introduced us to a couple of actors who would return to the Rep as a comedy team and also solo many times. I speak of the talented David Pichette and Peter Van Norden. I am thrilled to have Michael, Peter and David back on our stage bringing us a brilliant brew of theatricality that comes from their individual genius sparking each other and creating true theatre magic. Here is Michael to tell you how rehearsal is going.
Michael Butler, Director, Nixon's Nixon 3.22.07
We’re in tech now, and set looks….the set looks…..well, the set looks…..GREAT! It’s worth talking about here because we did something unusual with it. The play is based on a real event and takes place in a real location: the Lincoln Sitting Room in the White House. It was supposedly Nixon’s favorite room. Hard to figure why though. It looks like a room you wouldn’t want to sit in for two minutes, even if Lincoln was there with you. Weird chairs, bad wallpaper, the works…utterly ordinary. Everything the play isn’t. The play is surreal, playful, unsettling…it doesn’t sit, it careens. The play doesn’t have wallpaper…it doesn’t even have walls. Locations aren’t where plays really take place anyway. They take place in psychological landscapes, emotional landscapes….a three dimensional metaphor…So the landscape of this play is Nixon’s state of mind the night before he became the only President to resign from office. My set designer,
Scott Weldin, and I decided to create a slightly unbalanced world, a topsy-turvy, ship-of-state is sinking world…so the floor is pitched at an extreme angle…what we call a raked stage. We also made everything white…the floor, furniture, photos, everything…which makes it look both very plush and presidential, and also slightly like the padded cell of a nuthouse.
Introducing Michael Butler, Director, Nixon's Nixon 3.19.07
Nixon’s Nixon blog, Michael Butler
First week of rehearsal was more like an archeological dig than a typical rehearsal. We’re recreating a production we did ten years ago, which is eons ago in theatre time. Same cast, same design but none of us actually remember how we did it. Thank god we have the original stage manager’s production book with the original blocking in it; we’re using that like a site map for our dig. The original blocking is in the stage manager equivalent of a lost language though…sometime it’s like reading hieroglyphs. And we don’t have the original stage manager herself (Nina Iventosch), so our current stage manager, the very capable Laxmi Kumeran had to interpret Nina’s hieroglyphs. It’s unusual but exciting. The first couple of days involved a lot of digging through the erosion of the last 10 years with shovels to get to the basic bones of the production. Then we had to get out the little whisk brooms and start dusting off the details. It was fun to discover something you’d forgotten…to experience the wave of full recall triggered by a detail.
Now we’re mid way through week two. We all liked what we did with this show 10 years ago, and we don’t want to throw that out. But museum pieces don’t usually make good theatre so we have to rediscover it as well, that’s what much of this week is about. That and the endless tinkering of trying to make something perfect by getting just the right timing and tone. I’m lucky to have Peter and David to work with again. These guys are Jedi actors. They don’t just cross the stage; they float. They don’t reach for a joke; they open their hands and the laughs fly into them.
It’s a joy to work at the Rep again. The level of support from the production department is astounding. We’re using Scott Weldin’s original set design for this production. But it was designed for the Montgomery Theatre. Scott passed away and I’m thrilled that we can honor his work again but we’ve had to consider adjustments for remounting it in the new theatre without his help and guidance. Managing Director Nick Nichols (a good designer himself) and I spent a lot of time in the space with a tape measurer! Eric Sunderman, the Rep’s Technical Director put the design into autocad and has been great at showing me variations and views. Lori Scheper and Chris Kesel, the props artisans have been finding, restoring or rebuilding the furniture, and their work is just astounding. And what a beautiful theatre! There’s not another like it in the Bay area, or anywhere really…hands down, the best physical space to in which to make work or see work. Artists love to work at the Rep. It comes from the top down of course. Artistic Director Timothy Near has always paid attention to the stuff that really matters and it shows in every show.
Next entry: the set.
Lots to tell you about that.
Stay tuned.
Michael
Jonathan Moscone- Director, Long Day's Journey Into Night 1.11.07
This is my first blog. I’m not one to do these sorts of things. I tend to keep my process to myself. But Timi has a way of getting me to say yes, so here goes.
This is one monumental play. I do Shakespeare. I do the classics. I thought I’d seen it all. But O’Neill is something else. This play is as close to seeing the real thing happening as I’ve encountered in a play, modern or ancient. He wrote his family (though sometimes I hope he was making it up), pure and not so simple. Emotionally bloody, psychological intricate, brutally honest, wickedly funny (I now know the real meaning of gallows humor), and a whole mess of messy love. This is a particular family, but it’s Family. Greek in stature, but American. From the beginning of the 1900s but right now. It’s inescapable, family, isn’t it. With all the love and all the pain, and all the secrets we know, and all the things we can’t let go of. We all have a bit of it in our families, to varying degrees. O’Neill had it in spades. As they say, he’s lousy with it.
This is all my way of saying that this is a really hard play to do. I can’t escape its intricacies, and there seems to be en endless landscape of discoveries to make, well beyond my capacity, I sometimes fear (you’ll know soon enough that I question my capabilities at every turn – part of my charm).
But I love this cast – each one of them. They get this play at times in ways that elude me. And they are open, honest, ready to make bold choices and go to all the places O’Neill demands we go.
This whole experience feels like an excavation, not unlike Shakespeare, bigger than all of us. The best we can do is jump in and take as many bites out of this gnarly beast as possible.
God, it’s an amazing play.
Jonathan
Jonathan Moscone- Director, Long Day's Journey Into Night 1.25.07
First Day Of Tech
Today was first day of tech – the rehearsals where we put the actors and the design on stage (lights, set, clothes, sound), towards presenting in front of the audience. I feel oddly at home in tech – suddenly you are with other people, tech staff, designers, and you are further away from the actors (in rehearsal you are usually about 5 feet from them), and the lights are down in the house, new ideas come to the forefront, choices that seemed great fall apart, you see the play in a whole new light – it’s an amazing experience. I love it. It’s also exhausting. You’re on your feet and thinking all the time. No coasting. But rehearsals are always like that. I think the thing that many people don’t know about rehearsals is that we work 6 days a week, and although everyone in the world works hard at their job, we in the theater have no opportunity to slack, to coast, to let our minds wander. We’re always creating, always judging, always pushing. There’s so little time to make interesting work, so all energies must be present and alive all the time. It’s thrilling, exhilarating, and it always feels like there’s never enough time.
I love this play; it has seeped into the actors’ pores and they are so alive with it, that the whole project feels so fresh – just what I always hope to find in carving out a classic – find its core, make it yours, and bring it to life with confidence and endless curiosity.
I know I sound a bit happy right now – I’m not. I’m terrified. Always am. Is this a false feeling of accomplishment? Am I getting it all wrong? We all feel this way at this stage; excited, nervous, confident and unsure.
Sometimes I want to have a simpler life, but then I know that that is just my anxiety talking. But the anxiety never goes away. So I live with it, better and better each time out, still scared and questioning myself, but more willing to listen to others, to genuinely collaborate, and to change and rebuild and keep asking questions.
All in all, day one: not so bad.
Introduction to Blog - 1.10.07
The Artist’s Diary
Hello theatre aficionados. This is the beginning of a brand new blog called The Artist’s Diary. I will be asking various artists who work at San Jose Rep to jot their thoughts down as they are here rehearsing for our next show and we will share them with you. If they don’t have time during the rehearsal, I will ask them if they would please write us a summary of highlights after they open……..and maybe some low light challenges as well, that they experienced during their creative process here in the big blue “magic box” that is SJ Rep. Sometimes you will hear from a director, sometimes an actor or a designer, or perhaps a dialect coach or a fight director. Sometimes you will hear from me or another member of our artistic staff: Bruce Elsperger (Casting Director and Artistic Associate), Karen Piemme (Director of Outreach and the Red Ladder Theatre Company), Kirsten Brandt (Resident Director and Literary Associate).
I imagine sometimes our topics will be complex and high brow and thrilling but we’ll also strive to have some fun with anecdotes and insider theatre facts. For example: the mother and father in our production of A Christmas Story which you saw recently on the Rep stage are actually married in real life. Howard told one of our post show audiences that he proposed to Nancy on stage. I love that.
I also receive some very interesting and thoughtful letters about art from our audience. From time to time I will post them on The Artist’s Diary blog.
Right now we have Long Day’s Journey in rehearsal. It is being directed by Jonathan Moscone. We have an extraordinary cast and I urge you not to miss our production of the first great American play ever written. Over a hundred people attended our Ghostlight Forum on Monday, January 8. My guests were Dan Cawthon, vice president of programming for the Eugene O’Neill Foundation and Paul Vincent O’Connor who plays James Tyrone. They were absolutely fascinating and very entertaining.
Don’t miss the next Ghostlight for Nixon’s Nixon with director Michael Butler. Nixon’s Nixon (back by popular demand) just became even more pertinent and “back in the news” with the recent election and the passing of President Gerald Ford. We will enjoy a rousing discussion with Butler and I bet I can get him to play a little blues harp as an added bonus. That’s February 26, from 7 to 8 pm on our stage. Admission is free.
Now I have to get back to reading plays for next season. I think we are coming up with some very entertaining and intriguing choices. I will be announcing at least 4 plays by the end of February.
Stay tuned for our first guest artist entry into The Artist’s Diary.
Timothy Near, Artistic Director